THE VINEYARD WORKER’S COMPLAINT
Mt. 20:1-16
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: The salesman
1. Morris applied for a job at MEN’S WEARHOUSE. During his interview, Ben, the personnel manager asked him, "Where did you last work?"
2. "Joseph A Bank," replied Morris, proudly. "And how long did you work for them?" asked Ben. "A long time - 40 years in fact," replied Morris.
3. Ben was a bit startled by this response and said to Morris, "40 years, eh? So how old did you say you were?"
"I’m 51 years old," replied Morris.
4. "I don’t understand," says Ben. "If you’re 51, how come you say you worked for them for 40 years?"
Quick as a flash, Morris replied, "I put in a lot of overtime."
5. We’re going to read about some other workers and their long hours.
B. TEXT
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. 3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went. “He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ 7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. “He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’ 8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’ 9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’ 13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ 16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
C. THESIS
1. The details of the story are the sort of thing that could easily have happened in any Jewish village at the grape harvest. But there are a couple of surprises.
2. So we’re going to look at the basics of the parable, what the work difficulty represents, the concept of inequality, and God’s reply to our complaints.
3. The title of this message is “The Vineyard Worker’s Complaint.”
I. BASICS OF THE PARABLE
A. THE PROBLEM & THE SURPRISE
1. The origin of the problem is that the Landowner contracted to pay all the workers the same wage, regardless of whether they worked one hour or ten hours. That’s not good business, but this story isn’t about running a business anyway.
2. To me it’s surprising that the workers complained about being paid what they contracted to work for. There’s often inequality in pay in the work place.
3. Why did the workers feel this way? Some workers felt that since they had experienced greater work or difficulty, they deserved to get paid more than those who worked/ suffered very little.
4. They complained that the Landowner wasn’t JUST or FAIR in His rewards to His workers. To me it speaks of a bitter attitude.
B. 3 KEY SYMBOLS & THEIR MEANING
1. Since this is a parable about the “Kingdom of God,” it’s safe to assume that the Landowner = God, the Vineyard = Israel or the Church (which it is in O.T. prophecy), and the workers are the people of God.
2. Christians are supposed to demonstrate the love & life of Jesus to those around them. That’s our job.
C. AMOUNT THEY AGREED TO WORK FOR
1. This Parable points out one universal fact: they all agreed to be paid the same amount. This amount, described as a denarius, was evidently considered a generous wage for a full day’s labor because the first set of workers readily agreed to it.
2. In spiritual terms, our “pay” or reward for working for God is - salvation now and heaven later.
II. WHAT THE TIMES OF DAY REPRESENT
A. LINEAR VIEW: TIME OF LIFE SAVED
1. Almost always we think of this parable as linear; the times of day correspond to the times of life a person becomes a Christian.
2. For example, 8 a.m. = 10 yrs old; 9 a.m. = 18; 12 noon = 35 yrs old; 3 p.m. = 50; 5 p.m. = 65 yrs. old.
3. There are other possibilities of how to interpret the different hours they worked.
B. “WE HAD MORE TROUBLE OR PERSECUTION”
1. What if the greater work time instead equaled greater trials? The workers mentioned having to work through the “heat of the day.”
2. In the Parable of the Sower (Mt. 13:5-6, 21), Jesus described the heat of the Sun on the plants being “trouble or persecution.”
3. What if the greater “heat” borne was greater trials or greater persecutions?
4. HUMOR
a. Did you hear about the guy who decided to develop a new brand of deodorant? He used Baking Powder and Cornstarch.
b. The only problem was, when he got really hot, he broke out in biscuits!
C. “WE SUFFERED GREATER LOSSES”
1. Or what if the difficulty represents greater losses? In Philippians 3:4-9 Paul described the loss of his family, his social class, his wealth, & his entire former existence, so that he might gain Christ.
2. Some, like the Rich, Young Ruler were called to give up ALL their wealth. Zacchaeus gave up half of his wealth. Others only gave it up as they felt led to (Acts 4:34-37).
3. Maybe some who feel they gave disproportionately might feel shorted if they got the same reward!
D. “WE DID A GREATER WORK”
1. Some of the complainers grumbled that they had borne the “burden of the work.”
2. Many Christians work hard for God, winning souls and working in the Church, while others do very little.
3. When we see others, who don’t do as much, get some blessing from the Lord that we haven’t gotten, might it create a feeling of hurt that God hasn’t rewarded us for our extravagant labors?
III. CHRISTIANS ARE ESPECIALLY DESTINED FOR TRIALS
Three reasons trials are necessary:
A. HEAVEN IS FOR THE PURIFIED
1. We Christians, who expect to receive the greatest joys later, may expect to now experience a greater number of trials.
2. The character that has never been tried may be innocent, but it’s lacking in the strength and vigor that comes from repeated testing.
3. Trials and troubles are the blast furnace that God uses to separate the dross from the silver. That’s why “Judgment must begin at the house of God.” “God will have a tried & tested people.”
B. SATAN WILL ATTEMPT TO STOP YOU
1. The devil attempts, by sufferings and disasters, to push all people into discouragement, to rob them of their confidence in God, or get them to give up their devotion/ duty to God.
2. But Remember: God turns the devil’s curses into God’s blessings, actually making them work for our good!
C. ARE ALLOWED FOR OUR GROWTH (3X)
1. SELF-KNOWLEDGE. The person who stands on the deck of a sinking ship will learn, if he did not know it before, whether he is a hero or a coward. Affliction shows us "all that is in our heart." Frequently defects of our character surface.
2. IT DEVELOPS PATIENCE
a. The Apostle James regarded the grace of endurance/ patience as extremely valuable.
b. The man/woman who uses every fresh trial to only increase their strength in God is unquestionably a “gainer” by their troubles. How could the enemy stop such a one? Who could convert negatives into positives?!
3. INEQUALITIES ARE UNIVERSAL.
a. We don’t get to choose our parents, our appearance, the country of our birth, our wealth, our educational possibilities, and many other things.
b. Some are tall/short; handsome/more plain; Elvis hair/ bald-headed; some good vision/ poor vision.
c. We must accept our place in life and find a way to be thankful for the things we have, and NOT envious for what we don’t have.
IV. GOD CORRECTS THE ACCUSATION OF INJUSTICE
A. TEXT
13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ 16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
B. GOD’S FOUR CORRECTIONS
1. You agreed to work for salvation/heaven (13).
2. “I want to give the same to the least as to the greatest” (14) – that’s GRACE! The bigshots don’t get any more than you will get. God actually levels the playing field with this one.
3. God is the Creator; He has the right to be generous with the undeserving! (15)
4. Last first & First last (16). Our way of judging things is often backwards. The ones who were more disadvantaged on earth will probably be more rewarded in heaven. We all better stay humble!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: How you can tell it's going to be a rotten day:
1. You wake up face down on the pavement.
You call Suicide Prevention and they put you on hold.
You see a "60 Minutes" news team waiting in your office.
Your birthday cake collapses from the weight of the candles.
2. You turn on the news and they're showing emergency routes out of the city.
Your twin sister forgot your birthday.
3. Your car horn goes off accidentally and remains stuck as you follow a group of Hell's Angels on the freeway.
4. Your boss tells you not to bother to take off your coat.
The bird singing outside your window is a buzzard.
5. You wake up and your braces are locked together.
You call your answering service and they tell you it's none of your business.
6. Your income tax check bounces.
You put both contact lenses in the same eye.
Source Unknown.
B. THE CALL
1. God has not promised skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways all our life through;
God has not promised sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.
But God has promised strength for the day,
Rest for the labor, light for the way;
Grace for the trials, help from above,
Unfailing sympathy, undying love. Source Unknown.
2. How many are going through something and you could use some extra prayer?
3. Let’s stand and think of things we can be thankful to God about.
